The present invention relates to a video replay system and a control method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a video replay system and a control method of such a system whose video replay speed is automatically controlled in response to a viewing behavior (or manner) of a viewer. Examples of the viewing behavior of the viewer on the basis of which the replay speed is controlled include the speed of taking notes by using input means such as a keyboard or a touch panel and the viewer's concentration level that can be estimated based on the loci of his/her sight line.
Currently, video distribution via the Internet is widely practiced. It has already become common to watch video news and movies via the Internet. Besides watching such video news and movies, a large number of people try to learn various subjects through audio and video lectures distributed via the Internet. In this patent application, the inventors would like to propose, by referring to video lectures distributed via the Internet, how such lectures can be utilized in the area of education. Non-interactive learning methods using electronic materials such as video lectures are often referred to as e-learning. As a person skilled in the art will readily understand, electronic materials used in e-learning are not limited to materials distributed via a communication network including the Internet (a LAN or a WAN included), but include materials stored on storage media such as a CD-ROM or a DVD, materials downloaded to a client computer, video lectures broadcasted as a television program, and so on. Of course, it does not matter in the present invention which communication network is employed.
Online distribution of video lectures has become popular as a method of delivering educational materials, mainly because such a method makes it possible to remotely attend lectures given by skilled teachers, regardless of temporal and geometrical limitations. At the same time, its efficient and economical nature may be why online distribution of video lectures has become so popular. In higher educational institutions such as universities and colleges, the practice has already been adopted to record ordinary lectures and to make them freely available to members of the general public who wish to remotely attend the lectures. An example of such on-line distribution of university and college lectures is Open Course Ware, which started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has gradually spread to other universities including those in Japan. Accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees can now be obtained through e-learning. For example, Shinshu University and Cyber University are examples of such universities that grant accredited undergraduate and graduate degrees through e-learning. In addition, as various educational contents are being provided as vocational and professional training courses within enterprises or as preparatory courses designed for qualification examinations, the scope of e-learning is still widening.
In the case of e-learning at university or adult level, viewers of or listeners to lectures are usually interested in and actually need to learn the content of the lectures, and thus tend to actively pay attention to them. On the other hand, however, at elementary and intermediate level up to high school, the situation is different. As will be widely understood based on personal experience, a mere presentation of video lectures does not seem to function as an effective way to educate younger people, and they seem to find it difficult to maintain concentration on the video lectures.
In the prior art e-learning system, it has already been confirmed that how educational materials are delivered to learners does not result in a significant difference in educational effect when the delivered educational materials relate to advanced contents that the learners need to learn, and are thus naturally interested in. In other words, the more the delivered content is needed, the less the method of delivery of the contents are matters. However, in elementary and intermediate education up to high school, a straightforward delivery of a video lecture to students simply makes them passive and bored. To help students actively learn from the video lectures, it is necessary to provide them with a trigger by which they will become interested in the contents.
Accordingly, when video lectures are utilized as educational materials in elementary and intermediate education up to high school, it seems appropriate to prompt and encourage the learners to take notes during the lectures as such a trigger, so that they will continue to both concentrate on and be interested in the lectures. This is the basic idea underlying the video replay system of the present invention.
When video lectures are distributed via the Internet, it is possible to make the lectures interactive, which is not possible in cases of lectures on video tapes or DVDs. In remote lectures, it is sometimes said that there are three types of interaction, that is, interaction among learners, interaction between the teacher and a learner, and interaction between the delivered content and a learner. Comparative studies have been conducted on what differences in the learning drive, concentration, and effects result from adding these interactions to the video lectures to be delivered.
As a study concentrated on the interaction between on-line learners, an exemplary environment is employed wherein it is possible for learners to write comments on each scene such that the comments can be seen by any learner viewing the same on-line lectures on a certain website. However, it has not become clear which of the interaction between a learner and the teacher and the interaction between learners is more influential on educational effects. On the other hand, in a study concentrated on the interaction between the delivered content and a learner, it is reported that non-interactive video lectures and non-visual audio lectures do not result in any differences in educational effects, although interactive video lectures and non-visual audio lectures do result in differences in both educational effects and learning motivation. According to this report, when lectures are distributed on-line, providing video lectures instead of audio lectures does not change the effects of the educational materials. However, this report suggests that it may be possible to achieve some educational effects if such interaction is added so that input is required to move from one page to another page.
As mentioned above, the video replay system of the present invention aims at achieving educational effects by comprising a function that allows viewers to take notes along with viewing the video lectures. That is, in the present invention, among the three interactions above, the inventors regard the interaction between the educational materials and each student as being important, and try to encourage the student to utilize the notes when s/he reviews the lectures. More particularly, in the present invention, the inventors consider that the note-taking process by each student, which was not regarded as being so important in the prior art e-learning systems, is important, and aim at promoting interaction between the educational materials and each student by encouraging the student to take notes, so that significant educational effects will be achieved.
In elementary and intermediate education, significant effects of each student's note-taking process during classes on his/her learning process have been widely recognized. However, the prior art video materials were delivered to each student only in one direction, without the student's circumstances being taken into account. In addition, most of the prior art video materials contained more information than ordinary lectures given in a course by a single teacher. As a result of a one way delivery of a large amount of information, each student tends to be deprived of his/her imaginative and creative motives and become passive, and often ends up not taking notes on the lectures at all on the contrary, the inventors of the present invention aim to present a video replay system in which each student of the e-learning system is encouraged and is thus able to take notes on the lectures so as to interact with the delivered materials, so that significant educational effects will be achieved.
There is a paper (N. Ward et al., “Software for Taking Notes in Class”, 33 ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Educational Conference, S2E-2-8, 2003), wherein the authors point out that the note-taking process functions to help each student re-organize what is taught in the lectures, and propose a system that makes it possible for each student to take notes by inputting and hand writing letters and characters on a computer. It has been also pointed out that reviewing the lectures through notes taken by the student himself/herself will bring about more significant educational effects than doing so through notes taken by somebody else.
The present invention is based on the foregoing empirical evidence that there is a positively correlative relationship between note-taking by the student him/herself and educational effects. Thus, in the video replay system of the present invention, each viewer of the video lectures is encouraged to take notes when s/he views the lectures, and there is provided a tool that facilitates easier note-taking. More particularly, in the video replay system, the replay speed of the video lectures is automatically controlled to be responsive to the viewer's speed of taking notes, so that the viewer will have enough time to take notes as the lectures proceed. In other words, if the viewer takes notes slowly, then the video lectures are replayed slowly. If the viewer takes notes fast, then the video lectures are replayed accordingly. That is, if the volume of notes taken in relation to a certain scene is large, the video lectures are replayed at a slower speed. If the amount of notes taken in relation to a certain scene is small, the video lectures are replayed at a faster speed. Through the note-taking process along with the viewing of the video lectures, an interaction arises from between the student and the educational materials. As a result, (1) the student will more actively be engaged with the video materials, and (2) the student will be able to use the notes s/he has taken when reviewing the lecture.